51 pages • 1 hour read
Natasha PrestonThe Cellar
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Summer”
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses abuse; rape, sexual exploitation, and sexual assault; death by suicide; abduction; and graphic violence.
Each chapter’s title indicates the character viewpoint. A time note heads each chapter: “Saturday, July 24th (Present)” (1). The “present” is 2010.
Sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson, eager to celebrate the end of school, leaves her home in the small English town of Long Thorpe and walks a few blocks to a club where her friends await. Her boyfriend of one-and-a-half years, Lewis, who is friends with Summer’s 18-year-old brother, Henry, offers to drop Summer off at the club, but she refuses. Lewis and Summer kiss; she reflects on how she has liked Lewis since age 11.
Summer nervously walks past the graveyard and arrives safely at the club. Once there, her friend Kerri says their friend Rachel “ran off,” upset over a bad boyfriend, and they must look for her. Kerri and Summer go in opposite directions along the street. Summer enters an empty park, where a tall adult man in his late twenties or early thirties approaches her. He calls her “Lily” repeatedly, though she tries to correct him. Without warning, he grabs Summer and drags her out the back gate, through a field, and into the back of a white van. Summer, fighting him, smacks her head against the van; the blood disgusts the man, and he forces her to wipe the wound with a tissue and hand sanitizer. He takes her phone, locks her in, and drives off.
When they stop, the man forces Summer into a red brick house. The area is remote, with no other buildings in view. Inside, he reveals a secret entrance to a cellar. Summer fights hard, but the man forces her down the stairs, then retreats and shuts the door. The space is painted blue and furnished comfortably. On the table are three vases: roses, violets, and poppies. A fourth vase is empty. Summer is shocked when three young women welcome her.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Summer”
The time note does not change. The young woman who has been imprisoned for the longest (three years), Rose, explains that Summer cannot leave and must become Lily now: “Don’t ever let him hear you say you’re not” (14). Rose says her name used to be Shannen, Poppy’s used to be Rebecca, and Violet’s used to be Jennifer. She names their abductor as Clover. To all Summer’s panicked inquiries, Rose has terrible answers: They cannot escape, and they cannot kill him; others, including the first Lily, have tried and failed; Summer is “the second Lily” in the cellar (15). Rose says Clover wants a perfect family and cannot stand messy or germy things. They must shower twice a day, be clean and made up by 8:00 am when Clover joins them for breakfast, and never swear in front of him. They do not know if he can hear them. She claims he will want to “make love” to her “when he falls in love with her” (17). Summer, horrified, sobs.
Clover enters the cellar. Summer notes his tidy appearance. He asks politely how she is settling in, but Violet speaks up and tells him Lily is too young and that he has gone too far by kidnapping her.). He grabs Violet violently and calls her ungrateful; she spits in his face, which makes Clover panic and shriek. Poppy quickly helps him wipe the spittle with hand sanitizer. Clover pulls a knife, causing Violet to beg for forgiveness, agree they are all a family, and say that she is grateful he keeps her safe. He says he forgives Violet and leaves.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Summer”
It is the same day. Rose tells Summer that Clover has killed others who question him. She explains that he usually brings young women who are unhoused or are runaways like she was. Rose tells Summer the situation is not that bad. Summer is horrified. Poppy says she was 18 and living on the streets when Clover took her. Summer insists she is different, and her family and Lewis will find her. Clover returns and announces pizza for dinner.
Summer drifts off; Rose rouses her when the pizza arrives. Summer sits at the table but can barely eat, sick at heart and traumatized; a vase on the table now holds pink lilies. Clover thanks them for their company and wishes them a good night. The young women bring Summer to the sofa to watch a movie, but she is dazed. Poppy hands her pajamas and invites her to shower first; waxing strips replace razors in the bathroom, and nothing sharp or dangerous is evident. Summer falls asleep in one of four twin beds in a pink bedroom with matching covers and lamps.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Lewis”
The narrative switches to Lewis’s first-person perspective with a time note of the next day, Sunday, July 25. Lewis rides with his brother, Theo, through town at 3:00 am; they have been searching for Summer for hours. Lewis is certain she did not run away. They check the park but discover nothing. Back at Summer’s house, her mother, Dawn, reports that Summer has not phoned. She says the police will begin “a proper search” that day (37), but Lewis is furious that the police do not know more already. He leaves the house angrily; Theo convinces him to calm down for Summer’s sake. Lewis and Theo go to the community hall, where a search party is forming. A board with Summer’s photo reads, “Missing. 16-year-old Summer Robinson” (40).
Chapter 5 Summary: “Summer”
On Sunday, July 25, Summer wakes up crying. Rose tries to hand her clothes, but Summer does not want them; she is disturbed that their four outfits match. Poppy and Violet explain that they all must shower, dress, and be neatly made up with breakfast ready by 8:00 am when Clover joins them. She must leave her hair “natural” and not overdo make-up. Summer tries to convince herself that this is all temporary and that Lewis will find her. She also senses that Violet might want to escape. When Clover arrives, he brings more lilies, then looks threatening when Summer does not immediately accept them. Summer feels “the most self-conscious” she has ever felt at breakfast (47), where she can barely get down some toast. Clover tells Summer he is an accountant and works in town at a law firm. When he leaves for work, he kisses Violet, Rose, and Poppy; Summer is relieved he does not try to kiss her.
The narrative flashes back to Sunday, January 4, 2009. Lewis is playing video games with Henry in Henry’s room; when Summer comes in to get a movie to watch with Kerri and Rachel, Lewis invites them all to watch it in Henry’s room. The scary movie makes Summer jump in fear; she feels the chemistry with Lewis throughout the film. When the movie ends, Henry leaves to collect a take-out menu; Kerri and Rachel find an excuse to leave the room as well. Lewis kisses Summer, and she is ecstatic.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Summer”
It is still Sunday; Summer helps the others clean up breakfast, then bursts into tears. They try to comfort her. Rose tells Summer haltingly that Clover does not often go out, but when he does, he sometimes “disposes of people that do harm” (58). Summer is shocked when Rose explains this means he murders sex workers. Summer insists they could all escape if they work together, but Rose warns her against it in a “stern” voice. They watch another movie; there is no outside TV. Summer helps with dinner. She asks Rose if she thinks they will ever escape, and Rose says no; then Summer asks if Rose wants to. This causes tension. Rose ignores the question.
At dinner, Rose asks Clover for new dress patterns so they can make dresses. Summer realizes sewing requires scissors, and she asks if they will teach her how to sew, which causes Clover to smile broadly. Summer thinks she might be able to play along until she can form a plan. After dinner, though, Clover takes Rose into a tiny room under the stairs. Poppy indicates that it is the room where Clover rapes them. Summer is horrified and sits on the sofa, helpless. She wonders how and if she can survive that. When Clover leaves, Rose joins the others on the sofa without any reaction. Going to bed is an escape for Summer.
In the middle of the night, Summer hears commotion and screaming. In the cellar’s main room, Clover is furious, shouting at a new female. Poppy forces Summer to stay in the bedroom, but she and the other two go out to the main room. After a long time of strange thuds and noises, Violet returns to the bedroom and tells Summer, “I can’t do this anymore” (71). Summer thinks a new young woman has joined them and will have to wait for a bed, but then she hears clean-up noises and smells lemon cleaner.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Summer”
It is now Wednesday, July 28; Summer has been imprisoned for four days. She learns that Clover takes Violet, Poppy, and Rose into the room under the stairs on certain days of the week; she dreads learning which day will be hers. Violet tells Summer privately again she cannot stand it any longer and that Clover keeps the key in his front pocket. When he comes down the cellar stairs that evening, she plans to hit him and take the key. All Summer has to do is run up the stairs, and they will escape together. The plan goes wrong, though; Violet hits Clover with a pan, but it does little harm. She never gets the key, and Summer does not make it to the stairs. Clover grabs Violet by the arm.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
The narrative begins in Summer’s ordinary world, where details reveal Summer’s pleasant and uneventful life. For example, she lives with her parents and brother, has friends and a boyfriend, and looks forward to a break from school. Importantly, these specifics build a foundation that connotes comfort and support so that the juxtaposition with her “new” life as one of Clover’s “Flowers” is especially stark, uncomfortable, and terrifying. Flashbacks and memories reveal more of Summer’s background, such as the 2009 scene that offers a backstory on the start of her relationship with Lewis. These significant, ordinary world moments and details establish interest in the overarching conflict (Summer’s quest to survive captivity and return home) and frame Summer as a sympathetic character.
The author employs irony from the first chapter. That Summer expects a fun night with friends but ends the evening locked in Clover’s cellar is strong situational irony. Also, because she feels safe and content in her small town, she thinks little of walking alone a few blocks, which ironically results in her abduction. In a pointedly ironic line, Summer refers to her legs as symbols of freedom: “These […] work perfectly fine” (2). However, once kidnapped and deposited in Clover’s cellar, that freedom is completely curtailed. Dramatic irony comes into play each time the narrative viewpoint changes; for example, Summer can only wonder what action Lewis might take once he discovers she is missing, but the narrative in Chapter 4 follows Lewis’s attempts to find Summer and his worries regarding her well-being. Both situational and dramatic irony work to heighten sympathy for Summer and highlight the sense of helplessness inherent to her conflict.
That sense of helplessness runs as an undercurrent throughout this section, quickly becoming Summer’s predominant struggle and introducing the theme of The Dynamics of Power and Control in Abusive Situations. Like other new “Flowers,” Summer believes instinctively that she or they can fight Clover and escape. After seeing his threats against Violet when Violent speaks up about Summer’s age and repeatedly hearing from Rose about Clover’s violent tendencies and murders, Summer begins to realize just how helpless she and the other “Flowers” are. Her frustration grows as her helplessness builds, causing internal conflicts with which she must contend even as her external conflicts (Clover and captivity) grow increasingly more terrifying. Helplessness and frustration are the key traits in Summer’s character upon which her character arc will turn; this foundation in the early chapters provides a place for changes toward strength and power later in the novel.
The author primarily develops Clover as a Shadow archetypal character in these chapters, though he already shows hints of a Shapeshifter as well. His Shadow intentions are villainous and evil; he demonstrates no sympathetic qualities, though the text establishes questions regarding his propensity for loneliness and sadness and what past events drove him to abduct young women and kill sex workers. His Shapeshifter potential is evident in quick mood swings that take him from smiling politeness to infuriated snappishness, threats, and violence within seconds. Later, Clover’s Shapeshifting “mask” becomes more evident as he wears it to lure victims to his house, then switches into the Shadow as he forces them to comply or kills them in the cellar. These initial pieces of Clover’s character open the door for more backstory and development in future chapters, especially those from his viewpoint.
